I have two organization methods for my images. I consider Lightroom my primary method since I can find things very quickly using the filter functions on the catalog. My secondary method is to organize things through a file folder hierarchy. The file folder system has the advantage that someone else coming after me will be able to find things without knowing how to use Lightroom. For most of my pictures that's not really too important except for the family shots. None of my family knows how to use LR.

I should note at this point that I used Windows when I first wrote this user page but have switched to Mac. The only difference is that the Mac does not support Downloader Pro (see below) so I wrote a Python script to do what I needed to do. If you don't know Python, you can use the renaming available in Lightroom.

The first order of business is to give the images a descriptive name. Nobody (myself included) will be able to find something when presented with a list of files with names like "DSC_4829" (from my Nikon DSLR's) or "PA060283" (from an old P&S camera). So I start things by re-naming the files when I download them to my computer. I put a descriptive name on the files to make it easier to find things. Lightroom has that capability, but of course you have to tell it what to name the files and where to put them. Re-naming the files in LR is fairly easy, but when it comes to telling it where to put them it's slightly more involved since you have to give it the full path to the desired folder. Of course you can just edit the last path you gave it, but I believe I have an easier way.

Many years ago I started using a program called "Downloader Pro". The program is configurable by selecting setup preferences. I have the preferences set so that the process is automated, requiring minimal input, but still results in a reasonably simple file hierarchy. So my non-Lightroom organization depends on this program.

When I plug a card into the card reader, the program is launched automatically. It displays a page showing thumbnails of all the images on the card. There's also a panel showing the dates extracted from the EXIF data from the files. But before I can do anything with the thumbnails it pops up a dialog asking me for a "Job Code". That can be any text string, such as a PO number or descriptive text. I put some descriptive text in there. There's also a drop-down window that allows me to look at the last few job codes I entered and I can use one of those.

Once I enter the job code I can select one or more of the thumbnails in the usual manner (click on it, Shift-click to add a group, Ctrl-click to add nonsequential images). Or I can select all the images on a given date by clicking on the date. Or several dates using Ctrl-click or Shift-click on the dates. The program gives me the option of downloading the selected images or all images. (I can also delete selected or all, but I never do that).

I have the program configured so that the job code defines the final file name. The file name is going to be (Job Code) YYYYMMDD HHmmSSss.NEF (I shoot Nikon, raw only). The file contains a description of the subject (Job Code), the date the pictures were taken (YYYYMMDD, derived from the EXIF data in the file) and the time they were taken (HHmmSSss, where SS is the seconds and ss is the hundredths of a second). For example, the files might be named Suzie's Birthday Party 20160625 11234567.NEF. I used to use a 3 digit index number, and that was sufficient to tell me the order in which I took the pictures. However I recently started to use more than one camera body, allowing faster response when lens requirements changed. With two separate bodies, the index numbers would not be sequential for a chronological sort, while using the time preserves the chronology. I do occasionally use bursts of shots, so the subsecond time is required. I use YYYYMMDD to indicate the date because, taken as a number, it sorts numerically the same way it sorts chronologically. (Note that the international standards organization has a standard date format ISO-8601, YYYY-MM-DD, which could be used instead as it also sorts the same way).

Further, I have the program configured so that the job code defines the path to the folder in which to place the files. The path will be /photos/YYYY/(Job Code)/RAW. Since these are all raw files they will go into the /RAW/ subfolder of the main folder /photos/YYYY/(Job Code)/. After postprocessing, the keepers are converted to jpg files and stored in the main folder. At that point the images I want are in the main folder and the original files are in the attached subfolder /RAW/. (Downloader Pro can be configured to generate a /JPG/ folder if you shoot jpg only, or both folders if you have mixed raw and jpg files -- Newer Nikon bodies have a silent live view feature which can be useful if you need silence, but they record only jpg so sometimes I have a mix of NEF and JPG files).

IMPORTANT NOTE
After the postprocessing has been done and the jpgs and original raw files are safely stored in their folders, I back up the primary folder (since the raw files are in a subfolder of the primary folder they are backed up at the same time). ONLY WHEN EVERYTHING IS BACKED UP do I format the camera card. I format the card in-camera since that was advised many years ago. The necessity of formatting in-camera has been called into question recently. I suspect it's not necessary, but I do it anyway since it isn't an onerous requirement.


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Comparison between Downloader Pro and Lightroom methods
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This can all be done in Lightroom. I use DP because I started using it before I discovered that LR could rename photos and copy them to a local folder. But further, I believe DP to be slightly easier than LR. In DP I have to add the Job Code, which defines both the file name template and the path to the folder. In LR I define the template for the file name and a path to the folder. Defining the file name template in LR is much the same as in DP. I just have to take an old template and edit it by replacing the descriptive text. But that doesn't automatically change the path to the new folder so I have to enter that path separately. One entry for file name and another for the path. That gives DP the edge in ease of use.

Another advantage to DP: when renaming files via a template, both DP and LR can include the date and time. However, in LR, the time is limited to a granularity of 1 second. DP can have a granularity of 0.01 second. This can be a big advantage when working with burst shots, which frequently have subsecond time intervals.

I will admit that since I have a workflow that works for me, I haven't looked to change it by switching to LR for importing directly from the card to the computer instead of using DP. So I haven't used LR for renaming files except for a couple trials to see how it worked.

Thom Hogan has written an article on Ingest Programs. It mentions Downloader Pro along with a couple others.
http://www.dslrbodies.com/accessories/software-for-nikon-dslrs/software-products/ingest-software.html
NOTE: Typical of the ephemeral nature of the internet, the Thom Hogan article is not available in 2023. Rather than try to post another link I think it best to just advise you to google it. Maybe search for 'Thom Hogan Ingest Programs'.

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Update history:
20150625: original writeup
20151216: update to reflect a change in the file name template. Since I started using more than one camera body the use of an index number can be confusing since photos arranged chronologically will not have sequential indices, and photos arranged by index number will not be chronological. Instead of an index number, I use the time from the EXIF data.
20160326: added note on Thom Hogan article on Ingest Programs
20201107: polishing of text -- no substantial changes
20230828: Thom Hogan article not available -- Google it.
20230325: Time granularity comparison between LR and DP